Damascus, Sept. 20 (SANA) Syria has restored water service to 2.3 million people who had been without it for years and plans to build five wastewater treatment plants as it works to rehabilitate water and power infrastructure, Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir told the People’s Assembly on Sunday.
Al-Bashir said Syria has about 5,700 water sources and nearly 65,000 kilometers of water networks, as well as 123 wastewater treatment plants.
Most wastewater in Syria currently flows into rivers, lakes and the sea, he said, adding that the ministry plans to build five treatment plants in several provinces and rehabilitate the Adra wastewater treatment plant.
Al-Bashir said rehabilitating Aleppo’s wastewater treatment plant is estimated to cost $400 million, with the ministry working with international institutions to secure financing for the project.
Efforts to improve water supplies have also included repairing 6,000 pumps, drilling 308 new wells and rehabilitating 1,051 others to provide drinking water, he said. A further 110 water reservoirs have been rehabilitated or built.
Al-Bashir also outlined the condition of the country’s electricity infrastructure, saying Syria has 458 substations and 12 power generation plants, a large proportion of which were put out of service as a result of practices by the ousted regime.
He said current water tariffs remain very low and do not cover the cost of producing a cubic meter of water, adding that reducing water waste requires greater public awareness and more efficient management of consumption.
Turning to irrigation, al-Bashir said the ministry’s strategic objectives include developing irrigation facilities and strengthening the monitoring and integrated operation of dams. Three dams have been included in the plan for 2027, he added.
Al-Bashir also highlighted a project to transfer water from the Tigris River to the Khabur River, designed to irrigate about 215,000 hectares, including 150,000 hectares of newly irrigated land.
He said a phase of the project with a capacity of three cubic meters per second is estimated to cost about $572 million.
M.F
